Break-even client calculator
How many weekly clients cover the costs of running your practice. The minimum-viability number.
Pre-filled from typical 2026 costs (membership, insurance, supervision, CPD, software, ICO fee), about £172 a month. Room hire goes below.
Leave at 0 if you work online or from home.
At £70 a session, you break even at
1client a week
Exactly 0.73, rounded up.
Everything above 1 client a week is income; below it, the practice is costing you money.
- At £60 a session
- 1 client a week
- At £70 a session
- 1 client a week
- At £80 a session
- 1 client a week
Assumes 44 working weeks and the shared 8% no-show default. Break-even is pre-tax.
What this number is for
This calculator answers a different question from the fee calculator. That one asks what to charge to reach a target income. This one asks what keeps the lights on, which is the question that matters when you are starting alongside a job, coming back from leave, or deciding whether a small practice is viable at all.
The honest framing is that a very low break-even is the quiet superpower of this profession. A practitioner with £170 of monthly costs and a £70 fee is viable at one client a week. That single fact kills a specific anxiety: a slow first year is survivable, not failing. You can build a caseload at the pace referrals actually arrive without the practice bleeding money underneath you.
The number is fragile in one direction only: fixed costs. Re-run it whenever you add one, because a room lease can triple it in a stroke, and a practice that was viable at one client a week can quietly become one that needs nine. The startup cost calculator feeds the cost side of this page if you are still setting up.
Break-even is pre-tax by design: at the point the practice covers its costs, there is no profit to tax. Once you are above it, the take-home pay calculator shows what the surplus actually turns into. Nothing on this page is financial advice; it is arithmetic on your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Bloom tracks which sessions are paid and which are not, so you always know where you stand against the number above. It is £29 a month, which at most fees moves your break-even by less than half a client.